Worker wellness-focused Givhero closed a seed round, with lots of Maryland backing

Gaithersburg, Maryland-based social wellness platform Givhero recently closed a seed round with several Maryland institutional investors’ support.

Seed round participants included Baltimore’s Conscious Venture Fund II, Swerve Limited, TEDCO and the University System of Maryland Momentum Fund. The amount invested in the seed round was not publicly disclosed.

Givhero’s goal with this round of funding is to double its revenue by March while expanding the sales team with three new hires in Maryland. The company also aims to begin raising a Series A in March.

Givhero partners with employers to turn company wellness benefit programs into fundraisers for local charities. Through Givhero’s platform, employees raise money for their charities of choice simply by participating in company wellness initiatives or going for a bike ride through employer donation-matching processes from these activities.

“What we do is connect employees’ health and wellness journeys to the social causes they care about,” Givhero cofounder Vishal Chintawar told Technical.ly. “At an employer level, they get employee engagement, experience, corporate culture and social responsibility. We touch multiple aspects for employers with one single platform.”

Local investors, such as the University System of Maryland’s venture fund, are backing Givhero because they see potential in what the platform offers so far.

“This technology is quite advanced, the strategy of giving back to non-profits is unique and personalized, and the company has seen an excellent growth trajectory,” said Claire Broido Johnson, managing director of the Maryland Momentum Fund, in a statement. “We look forward to the data that proves employee retention and more, and are pleased that 90% of Givhero’s members say the connection to local charities motivated them to meet their health goals. Employers, especially during the pandemic, have had to find new innovative ways to engage remote employees and keep them healthy.”

Donte Kirby is a 2020-2022 corps member for Report for America, an initiative of The Groundtruth Project that pairs young journalists with local newsrooms. This position is supported by the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation.